Infant Was Near Death When Liver Donor Found

Tiny Amanda Frothingham of Boynton Beach was in critical but stable condition Monday night in the intensive care unit of Children`s Hospital in Pittsburgh after a successful 13-hour liver transplant operation Saturday.

For her parents, Toni and George, the past few days have been extraordinarily emotional.

Early Friday morning they were in despair. Dr. Don Buckner at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami had just told Toni Frothingham that time apparently had run out for her 6-month-old daughter, whose tiny body was jaundiced from her diseased liver.

``Dr. Buckner said she was starting to bleed again, and it was getting harder and harder to control,`` Amanda`s father said.

As Toni Frothingham was getting ready to take Amanda home to Boynton Beach to await her death, Dr. Maureen Jonas rushed in to stop her. ``She said, `Don`t go, we found a liver donor.`

``Dr. Jonas said the (Children`s Hospital) in Pittsburgh had just called, and it appears the liver matches Amanda`s in size, blood type and everything else,`` George Frothingham said.

The procedure, which had been outlined weeks before, was activated immediately. George Frothingham was driven to the Miami airport where a private jet with his wife, Amanda and a physician were waiting. Less than three hours later, Amanda was wheeled into the operating room at Children`s Hospital.

Doctors waited a few hours until the donor liver arrived from New York. It was taken from a youngster with severe neurological problems. The youngster`s parents agreed to turn off the respirator that kept their child breathing, but they waited until Amanda was in Pittsburgh so the liver would not die before the operation, George Frothingham said.

During 13 hours of surgery, Dr. Carlos Esquivel and an 11-member team removed Amanda`s diseased liver and replaced it with the donor`s.

The operation, which cost between $150,000 and $200,000, according to hospital officials, was performed under the guidance of Dr. Thomas Starzl, who pioneered liver transplants while at the University of Colorado, according to Children`s Hospital public affairs specialist Sue Cardillo.

Amanda was the 251st person to undergo a liver transplant at the Pittsburgh hospital since Starzl joined the staff in 1981, she said.

Amanda was a victim of biliary atresia -- a disease that destroys the liver.

Toni Frothingham said doctors have told her that biliary atresia is believed to be caused by a virus mothers contract during pregnancy. The virus strikes the fetus, and the symptoms are observed after the baby is born. It apparently does not affect the mother, she said.

George Frothingham, an auto mechanic in Deerfield Beach, said the operation and hospital stay are mostly covered by insurance through his job. But the cost of travel for him back and forth to Pittsburgh to be with his wife and daughter probably will mount up.

Donations can be sent to the Amanda Frothingham Benefit Fund, c/o The Barnett Bank of West Palm Beach, P.O. Box 4444, West Palm Beach, Fla. 33402.

``For the first time in her life, Amanda`s color looks great. She`s actually looking pale,`` her father said. Since she was born, he said, Amanda`s skin had been jaundiced.

Though connected to several tubes to feed her, monitor her heart and stomach, drain away waste material and excess blood, ``she looks so beautiful,`` her mother said in a phone interview.

``You have to look over all those machines to see Amanda,`` Toni Frothingham said, laughing.

For the Frothinghams and their relatives, the ordeal has been difficult at best, frustrating throughout and despairing often.

Amanda should be out of the intensive care unit within a few days and may be out of the hospital in about two weeks. She may be able to come home to Boynton Beach within about eight weeks, her father said.

George Frothingham`s mother, Linda Brunelli, was sobbing with joy Monday as she talked from Pittsburgh about the granddaughter she never believed would see her first birthday.

``I`m so happy, and she looks so good,`` Brunelli said. ``It was hard to be optimistic through all this. I was at work when Toni called me. I was running all over the plant yelling, `We got a liver, we got a liver.`

``I couldn`t believe it until I got here. I am still in shock,`` she said, choking back more tears.

Toni Frothingham`s father, Vincent Siegel, who stayed behind, was equally thrilled. ``I`ll never forget this day. This is the best Thanksgiving of our lives,`` he said.